A senior police official said that nine Maoists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region on Tuesday.
Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range Sundarraj P, told the media that the gunfight started at 10.30 am in the forest near the border of the districts of Dantewada and Bijapur when a joint force of security forces was out on an anti-Maoist operation.
The operation involved members of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the District Reserve Guard (DRG), which was launched based on inputs about the presence of Maoists belonging to its west Bastar division unit, Sundarraj P said.
The bodies of nine Maoists wearing “uniforms” were recovered from the scene after a long duration of intermittent gunfire, he said. In addition, he claimed that a huge cache of weapons was also taken from the encounter site.
Following this incident, the police reported that 154 Maoists had been shot and killed by security forces in various encounters in Chhattisgarh this year.
